The Gentle Craft: Clicking

10th Feb 2017
–
by Jeeves

Clicking, whether it is done by hand
or by machine, is the name given to the step of cutting out the leather. The
clicker uses a sharp, personal knife
or metal cutting die to ‘click’ the leather; a term derived from the sound the
blade makes when it exits the leather,
taking
great care to avoid any blemishes that are in the leather.

But there is more to the quaintly
named clicking than the simple gesture of cutting leather. Clicking is arguably
the most important step in the preparation of the
shoe upper. Because even when you use the best leather in the
world, if it is not clicked properly the shoe will not
look nor age well.

This has to do with the actual
nature of leather, the way the collagen fibre patterns develop in the skin
while the calf grows. The clicker must first of all take into consideration the
direction of stretch in the leather, as strength is maximized when the pieces
are cut with the direction of the backbone. Speaking of which, it is imperative
not to cut across the backbone. Certain areas where tensile strength is
weakest, such as the kidneys and belly area of the leather, must also be
avoided. The clicker makes sure that pairing parts are obtained from
corresponding positions in the hide, while maximizing the yield of a single skin.